1. Field
An aspect of embodiments of the present invention relates to an electric vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
As problems of environmental pollution, resource depletion, etc. come into the limelight, interest in transportation means using electricity as power (instead of fossil fuel) has recently been increased.
Electric vehicles, such as an electric bicycle, an electric motorcycle, or an electric car, include a rechargeable battery and a motor for driving wheels by receiving power supplied from the battery.
To improve the efficiency of the battery, technology has been used for charging recovery energy generated in the motor by rotation of the wheels on a downhill road, which does not require the driving of the motor.
An energy recovery operation used in conventional electric vehicles will be described with reference to FIG. 1. In conventional electric vehicles, a motor is driven by supplying motor driving current Id to the motor in response to a motor driving signal Sd. When conventional electric vehicles correspond to a specific condition, such as when a brake is applied, or when the electric vehicle is on a downhill slope, recovery charging current Ir for the battery is generated by performing the energy recovery operation in the state in which the supply of the motor driving signal Sd is stopped.
However, when conventional electric vehicles do not correspond to the specific condition, the energy recovery operation is not performed, and therefore, battery charging efficiency is not high. In addition, the supply of the motor driving signal Sd is necessarily stopped to perform the energy recovery operation.